Preparation for Tasmania ... Hats

K and Shari bought hats in preparation for our trip to Tasmania. We leave in a few hours.

Granite Island & the Little Penguins

Ae stopped at Victor Harbor on our way back to Adelaide from Kangaroo Island. We had one mission .... to see the Little Penguins (a.k.a. Fairy Penguins) at Granite Island!

The Little Penguins are the smallest penguins. They come ashore at dusk every day to feed their chicks and sleep in their burrows. Light (including camera flash) temporarily blinds them. So, I stole the following photos from somebody else's website .

As one can imagine, we were overjoyed by the chance to observe the Little Penguins!

Kangaroo Island ... Day 5

Leaving Day. We packed up and did a bit of hiking at Lathami Conservation Park (which butted up against the land where our cabin was). On our way out, we did see three yellow tailed black cockatoos - which was very exciting!

Kangaroo Island ... Day 4

This was the odd morning - instead of touring nature, we toured local businesses, including the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery and Clifford's Honey Farm. We tried to visit Paul's Place Wildlife Park ... but it was only open from noon - 2:oo PM. We also tried to visit Island Pure Sheep Dairy ... but it was open from 1 PM - 4 PM. We also tried to visit Jumbuck Shearing ... but they were closed due to the big shearing competition. One thing we have learned about Australians is that they are not all about profit.

We spent the rest of the day bird watching at Murray Lagoon (see the black swans below)


and hanging out on the rocks at Stokes Bay (near our cabin).

Kangaroo Island ... Day 3

We spent the morning at seal bay, where we watched Australian sea lions for hours. It was amazing.


Then, it was on to Kelly Hill Conservation Park where we toured a cave (the view from above ground in Kangaroo Island is much better than the one from below ground).


We spent the early afternoon at Vivonne Bay - this is notable because a professor at Sydney University evaluated 10,000 beaches across Australia, rating them on things like clarity of water, privacy and cleanliness. Vivonne Bay came out on top. The locals are quick to point out that Vivonne Bay is the best beach in Australia.


We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Little Sahara Geologic Monument. It reminded me of the time that my aunt Debbie and I took my cousin Kendra to the Oregon Sand Dunes ... she started running down one of the dunes, lost her balance and went end over end until she came to a sudden stop at the bottom. Amazing she is still with us. As a result, K and I were quite careful at the Little Sahara sand dune system. You can't tell by the photo, but it was really windy on top of the dunes.

Kangaroo Island ... Day 2

We spent our second day at Flinders Chase National Park. We hiked a bit ... and saw kangaroos, and echidnas ....

... and a platypus (not really - they are apparantly very difficult to spot) ...

and koalas ...


and Remarkable Rocks (that's what they are called) ...



and new zealand fur seals.


Absolutely unbelievable.

Kangaroo Island ... Day 1

Kangaroo Island is amazing. Day 1. We took the ferry to the island and drove to our cabin. Along the way, we saw signs of Kangaroos.


And, when we arrived to Stokes Bay (where are cabin was), we found a beautiful view...

And Kangaroos! About a hundred of them would come and graze every evening. It was unbelievable.


Wallabies came to visit us too. But only in the dark and they were fast. No photos.

Okinawa

Another retrospective on my Japan trip.

I spent the second week in Okinawa. The Okinawans are warm and friendly ... and they like their drink, especially Awamori.

I spent an extra day there (in Naha) and visited Shuri Castle, which was the palace of the Ryuku Kingdom, which ruled the Ryukuan Islands from the 15th to the 19th centuries - the Okinawans that I talked to considered themselves Ryukuans or Okinawans, rather than Japanese.


I also visited Filisji-En Park. OK ... back to Australia.

Wine tasting

Fast on the heels of the previous post - our Australian experiences the past two days entailed:

Getting a sunburn within two minutes ... and applying suntan lotion!


Wine tasting in Barossa Valley at Penfolds (oldest vinyard in Australia), Two Hands, and Torbreck.


Viewing vines


Hanging out at wineries and being silly with Shari!!!

Japan

We are actually in Australia now (see the previous blog). However, I am going to provide a Japan retrospective.

While in mainland Japan, I spent most of the time working but did a bit of site seeing. We went to Tokyo one night. We visited a couple of areas in Shinjuku - here is a photo of the guys that I traveled with in Shinjuku.


We spent one day visiting shrines and temples. We took an incline half way up Mitakesan (Mount Mitake) and then hiked the rest of the way up to a Shrine. It was a rainy and foggy day - which made it quite magical. Here are a couple of photos.

Morning in Adelaide

We arrived yesterday at noon and 2, respectively. We walked along the boardwalk and saw the beach, stopping for sunscreen when I started to burn after 2 minutes in the Australian sun. Everyone but me ate oysters. We hung out, drank wine, and Shari made a fantastic shrimp Pad Thai.

I've been up since 5, and went out with Erik for a cappuccino and a GLUTEN FREE BISCOTTI. He left for work, and I was just about to blog complaining that S and Shari are failing to entertain me, but Shari just woke up, and I'll go jump on the bed to wake S now.

more retrospective blogging

So - I'm madly trying to finish things at work and make my house and life ready for Australia. Oh. and pack.

Which makes blogging pretty attractive.

So - coming down the aisleSaying our vows (?) but in any case, laughing.
CMU crew coming out of the church (and looking cold. I'm really sorry about that.)
My Mom and Dad coming out of the church...with heads of Aunts, cousins, sibling, friends, grandmother - and Annie (the photographer). She probably doesn't get her picture taken enough, so I'm glad Scott took one of most of her head.
Sure would be nice if I could end this in some clever way...but it's almost midnight, so I think I'll just go to bed.

aviary article

Just a quick post about the aviary and Pittsburgh - an article on cnn.

Grandma's doing better - thank you so much for your well wishes.

grandma post

My Grandma broke her hip on Tuesday - she's been in the hospital, and they were able to perform the surgery tonight. She's just come out of surgery, and from what I'm hearing she's doing well.

I'm just so grateful that we finally decided to get married, that I finally had the courage to tell my Grandma, and that we were able to share our wedding with our wonderful families and friends.

Now begins the retrospective blogging...

S left for Japan early yesterday morning. She has the camera, and will hopefully hop on for realtime blogs. In the meantime...

The Rehearsal Dinner

Our friends David and Jerry hosted the rehearsal dinner. David catered it, and Jerry made it fabulous. Some pictoral highlights...

It was Jen's birthday...

Angie (the soprano) and Bill (the pianist) found seating on the stairs...

S's Mom and Aunts reserved a private room to celebrate...

My mom reviewed lots of Disney pictures

And the highlight (for me!) - our fabulous Minnie veils! Shown here modeled by myself and Olivia.

Finally - our professional photographs won't arrive for a little while - so - please send your pictures along! That way, I can put them up here and show people.